


Ring of Hope

by FireSlash



Series: Ultimate Heroes [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Green Lantern (Comics), Green Lantern - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Action, Action & Romance, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Attempt at Humor, Awkward Romance, BAMF Makoto Naegi, Blue Lanterns (DCU), Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Crossover, DC Comics References, DC Universe Existed in the Past, Dork Naegi Makoto, Eventual Romance, F/M, Humor, Red Lanterns (DCU), Romance, Slice of Life, Some Humor, Teen Romance, superhero au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:20:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23320843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireSlash/pseuds/FireSlash
Summary: (AU!). Makoto Naegi was unbelievably average, with only his bipolar luck and his undying optimism making him somewhat notable. It's because of all this that he received a blue lantern ring, turning his once ordinary life to one filled with adventure. With his newfound power, can Naegi shine some light into despair's darkness? Or will the darkness cause his light to fizzle away?
Relationships: Pairing To be Decided by Audience
Series: Ultimate Heroes [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/839874
Comments: 40
Kudos: 17





	1. A Hopeful Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: Hey everyone, Fire Slash here and welcome to my new fanfic. Now, I'm pretty sure you're wondering why I'm starting a new fic despite already having others out. Well, I'm the type of person who needs to have multiple projects going or else I won't progress in anything. Anyways, this fic was actually quite requested after I put the initial summary on my profile a while back.
> 
> Before we begin, allow me to explain some stuff: If you don't know much about the Green Lantern Mythos, don't worry. You don't have to know much about them to enjoy this story. A simple Wikipedia search about the various Lantern Corpses is all you might need. Just know that the reason I picked the Blue Lanterns over the Green Lanterns is that the Blue Lanterns use hope instead of willpower and Naegi is the unofficial 'Ultimate Hope,' so not giving him a Blue Lantern ring would be a sin.
> 
> Now for pairings... you see, I don't know what I'm going to do regarding this. I want to ship Naegi with a girl, but I don't know who, so I'm letting all of you decide. Ya'll can vote for the girl in the comments (options are anyone from the first, second, or third games. In this fic, the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles will be a rival school to Hope's Peak).
> 
> Now, with that out of the way, let's get to the story. Review and enjoy :-)

Location: Elpis (a planet light-years away from Earth)

The universe is a vast and seemingly infinite place, a place which many lifeforms call home. Various species of sentient life can be found no matter how far you travel, each with various traits which make them distinct. 

The existence of multiple lifeforms does come with its set of problems though, for not everyone is going to get along. Sometimes, an individual or an entire society commits intergalactic crimes and starts unnecessary wars. Thankfully, there are those who are willing to band together, no matter what species they are, in order to protect the universe. One of these groups is the Green Lantern Corps. With their power rings and willpower, they make sure no evil escapes their light.

The Green Lantern Corps isn’t alone in this endeavor, for fighting alongside willpower is hope. One of their sister groups, the Blue Lantern Corps, utilizes the emotion of hope to combat cosmic threats. Despite the Green Lantern Corps being older, the Blue Lantern Corps is known to be far more powerful. There was a drawback to being a member of the Blue Lantern Corps though in that one needs immense willpower to enact hope. In other words, a member of the Blue Lantern Corps needs to be around a member of the Green Lantern Corps at all times or else they can’t use their rings to their fullest potential. They can only fly and create a small protective aura around themselves, which is nothing compared to that to the Green Lanterns, who have the same powers plus the ability to create solid constructs made of green light. Now, someone wearing the Blue Lantern can do so as well, while also granting the user the ability to regenerate limbs and other abilities the Green Lanterns can only dream of having, but they needed to be next to a Green Lantern to do so. Some might ask why the Blue Lantern rings were designed like this, but that’s something not even the Blue Lanterns knew. The creators of the rings went missing eons ago.

With both intergalactic organizations aiming for the same goal (and due to how much Blue Lanterns rely on Green Lanterns), the two organizations are close allies. Now, there are other Corps which utilize power rings powered by emotion, but both the Blue Lanterns and the Green Lanterns prefer not talking about them… 

Back to the Blue Lanterns, leading the Corps is Saint Walker, an alien who managed to not only install hope to his home planet that was about to face extinction due to the fact the star their planet orbited was dying, but used that hope to save everyone by deaging the star by 8.9 billion years.

As head of the Blue Lanterns Corp, he was in charge of making sure the Corps stays afloat. Typically, he discussed strategies and the building of negotiation treaties alongside the heads of the Green Lantern Corps, but today was going to be different… 

“Saint Walker? Do you have a moment to spare?” Asked an elephant-like alien. 

Saint Walker smiled fondly at his fellow Blue Lantern. “Brother Warth, what can I do for you?”

“I need to speak with you about something urgent regarding recruitment.” This caused Saint Walker to raise an eyebrow. Brother Warth was the primary recruiter for the Blue Lanterns. He usually never asked Saint Walker for help seeing as the Blue Lantern rings avoid those wishing to use its power for corrupt reasons, so for him to do so meant something important was going on. 

“Of course. What’s troubling you my friend?”

Entering the room, Brother Warth caused his power ring to display a map of the known universe. “Well, while scanning all charted territory for potential recruits, I found something, or someone, of immense importance.”

“Immense importance you say?”

Brother Warth nodded. “Yes. A young member of his species who can harness the powers of a Blue Lantern ring without aid of a Green Lantern.”

Saint Walker blinked in surprise. Such a thing was rarely heard of in the Blue Lantern Corps. The only time a Green Lantern wasn’t needed was when someone had a large quantity of beings behind them, lending a Blue Lantern their hope. “I assume this individual has powerful allies behind them, right?”

“No. This individual possesses both the hope and willpower to power the ring to its max potential.”

The head of the Blue Lantern Corps gawked at this, this being one of the few times he lost his composure. Now this was something unheard of… someone like this was game changing. “Then I’d suggest we give him a ring immediately!”

“This is where my problem comes into play,” Brother Warth said before having his intergalactic map hone in on a specific point in the universe, Earth to be precise. “This individual resides in Sector 2814.” 

“Sector 2814…” Saint Walker frowned. Ever since ‘that day,’ Sector 2814 was cleared of all outside influence, which was a shame for both the Green and Blue Lantern Corpses as some of their best members had come from Earth. No one, not even the hungriest war tyrants, ever bothered coming to Earth after ‘that day,’ and for good reason. “Give me some time to think it over.”

“Understood.”

If Saint Walker was to send a power ring to Earth, there was no telling what might happen if others got word of this news. However, the Blue Lantern Corps was created to spread peace. Giving this individual a ring would be for a great cause. Not granting him a ring would be sending a countless number of people to their deaths, though granting him one would put many in danger as well. It was a tough call, one that took Saint Walker the equivalent of one Earth week to decide, but eventually, he made his choice. 

“Brother Warth, send it,” Saint Walker suddenly told him. In the end, the benefits outweigh the risks. 

“Are you sure?” Brother Warth asked, wanting to make sure he heard his superior correctly.

“Yes. Hope must shine and if that individual can make it shine brighter than ever, then as Blue Lanterns, it is our duty to make sure this occurs.”

“Understood. I’ll send a ring to Sector 2814.” With that, Brother Warth left the room, leaving his leader all to himself.

Pulling up a map of the known universe, he sighed to himself. “Now how do I go about informing the Green Lanterns about this?”

0000

Location: Earth

If one were asked to describe Makoto Naegi, the first thing they would remark is that the boy was painfully average. In general, they were correct. In terms of physical appearance, nothing about the boy stood out except for his somewhat below average height and his unique ahoge. Personality-wise, on the surface, Naegi was your typical teenager. His interests and hobbies often lined up with what was most popular at the moment. 

However, Naegi did possess two unique qualities. First off, Naegi’s luck was extremely bipolar. When it came to the boy’s luck, Naegi was practically the physical incarnation of Murphy’s Law: what can go wrong WILL go wrong. Sometimes, a situation would go wrong in a way in which Naegi didn’t think could happen. Strangely enough, somehow his bad luck would end up aiding him in the long run.

Secondly, Naegi was a very optimistic person. He was the type to believe that a situation wasn’t over until it was over. This allowed him to get along with many people and avoid trouble (unless his luck decided to come out and play).

These two qualities were what made Makoto Naegi unique, though it didn’t cause him to stand out. To be honest, Naegi didn’t mind this aspect about himself. Sure, it would be cool to have a talent to call his own, just like those who attend the famous Hope’s Peak Academy, but he was content with being an average joe. It was simple, and with luck like his, simplicity was always welcomed. 

Of course, the legend of the Blue Lantern of Sector 2814 wouldn’t be a thing if Naegi had continued living a normal life. No, he would go on to become the greatest hero to ever exist after ‘that day.’

And unknown to the boy, his journey was about to start… 

Groaning, the middle-schooler walked home, which was where he was supposed to be three hours ago. To make matters worse, it was pouring outside and all he had to cover himself was his trusty hoodie that was now soggy from all the water it had absorbed. How come Naegi was arriving home so late? If one were to ask him, he’d blame his luck. Having walked past some of his middle-school acquaintances, he was invited to play a game of ‘rock papers scissors with some of their acquaintances and them. Despite none of them being Sayaka Maizono (the famous idol who somehow attended the same middle-school as him), he decided to give it a shot. After all, he was on a streak of doing things differently than usual today, having decided to take the long route home. To make things interesting, it was proposed by someone in the group that the loser would buy snacks for the winners. There were ten other people playing, and Naegi felt his odds of not being the first one were decent.

… And of course he lost. In the first round no less. One would think that he would have learned his lesson by now. Somehow, everyone played ‘rock,’ except for him who decided to play ‘scissors.’ 

From there, the boy would somehow end up getting involved with catching a high-profiled bank robber after tripping up multiple people. It was certainly a story… one of which Naegi would like to forget. Well, now that he thought about it, it might actually make for an entertaining short story…

“Just a few more minutes until I get home,” Naegi mumbled to himself. “I can take a bath, go to bed, and put today behind me…”

Unknown to the young boy, the Blue Lantern ring Brother Warth had sent him had just reached Earth’s Solar System. Moving beyond the speed of light, it shot straight towards Earth, where it flew around in the planet’s atmosphere as it searched for its new owner. Eventually, the alien artifact managed to find what it was looking for and began to fall towards its destination, making sure to slow down so it wouldn’t kill Naegi when it landed on the poor boy’s head.

“Ow!” Rubbing his head in pain, Naegi looked around to see what fell on his head. Eventually, he found the ring. Picking it up, he inspected it, trying to see if he could identify the object. “Huh, so this is what hit me. It somewhat looks like a Green Lantern ring.”

Yes, Naegi knew what the Green Lantern Corps was seeing as children were taught about it in history class alongside the dead planet of Krypton and the history of the Amazons. However, only the Yellow Lantern Corps had made contact with Earth alongside the Green Lantern Corps, so the rest were unheard of on Earth. It wasn’t like either Corps were willing to share information about the existence of the others, especially the Yellow Lanterns. They were more interested in trying to conquer the world with the power of fear…

“Was someone trying to cosplay as a Green Lantern?” Naegi asked himself. “I think they got the color scheme and symbol wrong…” 

It was then that the ring began to glow. Initially, Naegi had no problem with this. Perhaps it was a toy that glowed when a button or something was pressed. It was when it suddenly flew out of his hands and attached itself to his left ring finger that Naegi started to panic. However, before he could physically react, his eyes were blinded by a sharp blue light as he began to lose feeling over his body.

If one were to pay close attention to the boy, they would notice that he suddenly stopped before continuing to move forwards at a robotic pace.

0000

When Naegi came to his senses, he found himself in some sort of blue void. Naturally, the boy began to panic.

‘What’s going on? Where am I?’ Frantically looking around for a way to escape, the boy soon noticed that there was a blue ring floating in front of him, one similar to the one that had fallen on his head. ‘Am… am I supposed to do something here?’

Naegi soon had his question answered for him as the ring suddenly displayed a hologram of Saint Walker. If he wasn’t freaked out already, he was now.

“A-an alien? I thought they disappeared after ‘that day-’” 

“Greetings Makoto Naegi of Earth,” the hologram greeted, interrupting the boy’s train of thought. “My name is Saint Walker and I am here to deliver an important message.”

“Import-”

“You see, you have been chosen to become the newest member of the Blue Lantern Corps,” the hologram interrupted yet again, revealing that the hologram was a pre-recorded message. “I assume you know of the Green Lantern Corps, correct? My intel shows that your species is quite familiar with them. Just like the Green Lantern Corps, the Blue Lantern Corps aims to make the galaxy a safer place. We do so with the power of hope. Now, typically we would avoid Sector 2814 as if it were a plague, but you see, you are not someone we can pass on. Normally, a member of the Blue Lantern Corps needs to be around a member of the Green Lantern Corps at all times or else they can’t use their rings to their fullest potential. You somehow do not have this limitation. As such, I’ve decided to grant you a power ring. I must warn you though that due to your lack of exposure to the ring, several of its abilities will be sealed away for now, but will be unlocked once you get used to using its power.”

Just then, a robotic voice interrupted the recording as the ring blinked. “NOW INSTALLING BASIC USAGE MANUEL IN USER.”

“What?” Suddenly, Naegi felt a jolt in his head, the blue light from before replacing his vision for a brief second. When it returned, Naegi realized that he now had an understanding on how to use the ring at a basic level. 

Before he could react to this, the hologram continued its speech. “Makoto Naegi, no, Brother Makoto Naegi, allow me to welcome you to the Blue Lantern Corps. May your light consume despair’s darkness…”

The hologram then disappeared, causing Naegi to shout at it to return “Wait! I have so many questions!” Like how did they even find him, what other Lanterns existed, what was he supposed to do now, and why did they pick him among all people? Sadly, he never got a chance at asking anything as the room began fading, his vision returning to normal…

0000

Blinking, Naegi found himself back in reality. Taking a quick peek around, the boy noticed that he was now closer to his home despite having stopped moving when he was blinded. Honestly, this didn’t bother him so much. He blamed the ring for having moved him. What did though was the events that transpired not even a second ago. He was granted a Blue Lantern ring seemingly out of the blue with no explanation as to why he was given one. Instead, he received what was the human equivalent of an exposition dump. 

“What do I do now?” Naegi asked himself, currently at a loss as to what should be his next course of action. He then clutched his head in confusion. “I-I think I need to rest. I’ll figure out what to do tomorrow…

Naegi immediately made a beeline to his home, having had enough strange stuff happen to him already. Eventually making it home, the boy pulled out his keys and began unlocking the door. Once he did so, he entered his house and made his way to the living room. Dropping his bag on the floor, Naegi continued to stare at the ring as if it was going to give him any answers. “At least this day can’t get any more strange…”

“Makoto! Is that you!” A female voice shouted, nearly startling the boy. Quickly, he hid the ring in his pocket out of reflex as three people made their way to the living room, them being his parents and younger sister Komaru. Without hesitation, the younger Naegi sibling showed something into his hand. “This came to you in the mail from Hope’s Peak!”

This caused his eyes to widen. Hope's Peak was a government funded school with state of the art facilities and the best teachers around. It is an elite school which only accepts those who are the best at what they do and helps them enhance their abilities. The point of the school is to spread hope around the world, training their students to spread the concept around the world. What do they want with an average joe like himself? Opening the letter, Naegi began reading the contents out loud. 

“Dear Makoto Naegi," the letter read. "Every year, Hope’s Peak holds a lottery and accepts one ordinary student. This year, your name just so happened to be drawn. As such, you have been accepted to Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Lucky Student. Congratulations! We hope you accept our invitation. Sincerely, the staff at Hope's Peak."

As his family started congratulating him on his accomplishment, Naegi had one thought lingering in his head. ‘Today really was a weird day…’


	2. A New Environment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naegi meets his new soon-to-be friends...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note: Hey everyone, FireSlash here welcoming you to another chapter of 'Ring of Hope'. I want to thank all of you who've shown support for the story so far. It means a lot to me :-). Glad to see a lot of you are enjoying this fic. Now, this chapter is going to be a bit of exposition (going over Naegi's training method and having him interact with Maizono and Kuwata for the first time), but next chapter, you'll get to see Naegi with the long, so don't worry. Oh, and the girl Naegi will end up with is still up for debate. Let me know who you wish to see Naegi with in the comments.
> 
> If you haven't already, I suggest following my IG account (fire_slash_fanfiction) as I post when I plan to update some fics. It's also the best place to reach me.
> 
> Well, I've said all that I have to. Let's get right to the story. Review and enjoy :-).
> 
> Edit: Some people felt the training montage was a bit rushed, so I fixed it. Hopefully it's better :-).

Location: Earth

There was a two month gap between the day Naegi received the Blue Lantern ring and his first day at Hope's Peak. It was during this time that Naegi decided that he would train himself on how to better use his new powers. Unlike most heroes who randomly inherit powers and seem to be prodigies on how to use them, Naegi was a complete novice on how to use his ring effectively… sort of. The ring did inject in him the basics on how to use his newfound gifts.

"But where do I start?" The boy asked himself as he stood in a dumpster, one which he knew was unguarded because why would it be in a superhero story? "Hm…"

" _Creating a training regime_."

"What the?!" Naegi jumped backwards as he heard a voice inside his head. He rapidly moved his head around to survey the area, trying to see who had been talking to him.

" _Completed_."

From his ring, a blue hologram of a list attached to a clipboard appeared in front of him, nearly causing the boy to have another heart-attack. With a quick glance at his ring, he approached the list. Reading it revealed that all his current powers were on that list along with some recommendations as to how to get started on using them. It didn't take long for Naegi to put two-and-two together.

"Hey, uh, can you hear me?" Naegi awkwardly asked his ring. While it seemed stupid for him to do so from an outsider's perspective, the soon-to-be Ultimate Lucky Student knew that his ring had just mentally communicated to him.

The response was swift. " _Indeed_."

Naegi didn't know what to do next, so he winged it. "So… who are you? Are you something trapped in my ring or are you something else?"

" _I am an AI created to aid you in your endeavors," the ring explained. "You may command me to perform some basic functions, such as to move something with a construct. I can also allow you to translate every language on the Blue Lantern database, which includes all Earth languages, dead and alive. If I detect danger, I'll warn you if you wish._ "

"Please do." With his luck, danger was something he encountered constantly. To have something that could help him deal with this was a blessing.

" _Understood. The settings have been saved. Now, for your training, I'd suggest getting used to activating your protective aura first. It'll prove to be useful in the long run as it'll help protect you from things such as the vacuum of space._ "

'Well, I doubt I'll ever be in space, but I guess I should do what the ring says for the time being.' Concentrating, the boy was surprised to see that he managed to activate it on the first try. 'I actually did it?'

It only took him a second to realize why this was. When he first got the ring, it installed some sort of training manual into his mind, meaning he wasn't going about this blind. However, the ring didn't really give him the knowledge on how his powers worked. Instead, the ring was more instinctual, Naegi knowing how to use his powers but not knowing the full sciency explanation on how the ring worked.

Because of this, he only spent one day focusing on this power and that was only just to make sure he actually knew what he was doing.

Next on his list was attempting to create objects. Unlike the protective aura, this took a bit longer to master even with the training manual installed into his brain. He was limited to non-living, stationary objects. He could use his ring to move them, but he couldn't make a fully working system. For example, he could make a train, but the technological aspects of it wouldn't work, meaning he couldn't make its tires or brakes do anything. According to his ring, he'd be able to create much more once it deemed him capable enough to do so. He'd even be able to create objects related to his target's psyche, allowing him to potentially calm them down.

However, even with all this knowledge fed to him by his ring, he still had a bit of a problem...

'Rock.' Concentrating, Naegi created a big blue rock that was about three times his size.

'Hammer.' The rock was soon replaced by a hammer.

'Swing.'

Following his mental command, the hammer swung at a broken refrigerator, only to shatter on impact. For some reason, his constructs were very weak.

"Agh! Why isn't this working!?" The boy angrily yelled to himself as he allowed his body to drop to the ground. For a week now, he's been trying to figure out how to make his constructs stronger, but to no effect.

" _You need to exhibit more hope,_ " his ring told him for the billionth time.

"I'm giving everything I got here though." Naegi frowned. He poured everything he had mentally into his constructs, but the results were always the same. "What is it that I'm doing wrong?"

For a couple of seconds, Naegi sat in silence, trying to think of a solution. Eventually, he decided to look up the definition of hope, thinking that by doing so, it would give him an idea on what to do next.

"Hope: a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen" was the first definition he got on google. He stared at it for a while. Yes, he desired for a certain thing to happen to the point where he was physically trying to make it happen, but no matter how much he thought about it happening, it never did.

'Wait a second…'

Naegi quickly searched up the definition of willpower.

"Willpower: control exerted to do something or restrain impulses."

He then went back to the definition of hope and started laughing. The reason why his constructs weren'tt working was so obvious to him now. He had been willing the construct to form, but he had not been powering it up. Hope was an emotion, something he couldn't force out of him. He needed to be in-tuned with the emotion. Excitement swelling up in his chest, he began to recreate his hammer.

'Swing.'

When the hammer made contact with the refrigerator, the thing stood no chance as it was flattened to a pancake by the hammer.

"I...did it...YES!" The boy was ecstatic at having accomplished the task, a sense of pride filling inside him. Now that he further understood how the ring worked, he felt things would get easier from now on. He was sort of right...

Adding to his offensive capabilities was the ability to shoot beams of light. However, there was a problem with this power. Naegi found that he could choose to either fire blasts of heat or concussive force after doing a test run.

"Is there a way to make this non-lethal?" Naegi asked his ring as he stared at the giant hole he made in a washing machine. Somehow it managed to burn through the thing. "Or maybe make it so that it doesn't burn?"

" _Concussive force can be shot from the ring instead._ "

Fueling his ring with hope, the boy shot the remainder of the washing machine, making sure that the damage type was switched. Doing so allowed him to knock it back. Still though, that force was enough to kill someone. 

"Let's see if we can make this non-lethal to people."

As it turns out, he could. He had the ability to change the intensity of his blasts. How he knew whether a blast would kill someone or not wasn't something he could explain. It simply felt like a gut-feeling and seeing as his knowledge of the powers he could use had a similar explanation, he was going to go with this.

He actually discovered a neat trick regarding firing either. Instead of making the focus point his ring, he could make it his fingers, allowing him to fire weaker, yet more blasts at once.

"Charging these blasts takes a bit of time and are hard to aim," Naegi said to himself one day. "There has to be a way to fix this."

A quick look at his hands was all he needed to figure out a solution. The blast came from his ring, which was one focus point. What if he fired the lasers from multiple areas? Pointing his fingers at a broken sink, he fired several small lasers, chipping away at it.

"Huh, that worked." He had expected it to, especially with the fact constructs weren't always attached to the ring. "Now, let's see if I can change its shape. Maybe making something a bit bigger will help me more.

Thus was how he managed to figure out how to turn the blasts into different shapes. For some reason, his favorite shapes ended up being that of large bullets. Why? He just found it easier to control. Also, despite generally being a pacifist, it just felt right.

"You've got that wrong villain, for I am here," Naegi shouted as he fired a bullet at an empty bottle he found. Despite how corny his line was, he did manage to knock down the bottle.

Alongside all this, the boy was able to fly… but it took him the entire two months to actually be able to effectively. Moving up and down was fine; all he needed to do was to draw enough hope from himself while picking the direction.

"Let's try moving forwards." Digging into his brain for instructions on how to fly, he was surprised to be greeted with the equivalent of an error message, one he did not know the meaning to. Hell, he hardly knew what the error messages he'd occasionally receive on his computer meant.

" _The action cannot be completed because the ring's data is corrupted_ " was his ring's reply when he asked him what the code in his mind meant.

"So I have a broken ring…" Naegi groaned. It seems his luck affected him even if he was lightyears away from an event. "I guess I gotta push myself forwards somehow. Can't be too hard, right?"

Indeed it can. When Naegi aimed to gently push himself, he accidentally flung himself into a pile of trash. Unfortunately, said pile had a huge spike in it and it impaled the poor boy's arm.

Releasing a screech of pain, Naegi attempted to assess his injury. The object went right through his arm, so pulling it out was out of the question. The soon-to-be Ultimate Lucky Student began racking his brain for ways to get out of this situation. He knew that if he left this thing in his arm, he could run the risk of dying from blood loss. With his free hand, he reached for his phone to call an ambulance, but suddenly, he took another glance at the spike. For some reason, he felt that an ambulance wasn't needed. He could heal himself.

Concentrating, the boy watched in amazement as his wound began to close, pushing the spike out of his body. In less than a minute, his entire arm was fine despite it most likely needing to be amputated moments prior.

"That's amazing." It was the only thing Naegi could say. Being able to heal from such drastic wounds was unbelievable. He would get ample time to test out his new power as every time he tried to fly, he'd have an accident which would cause him to break a limb. He discovered that if he left the injury alone, it would heal in ten minutes instead of the typical one minute if he concentrated on doing so. Supposedly, the ring could heal others as well, but he really hadn't tried testing it out as he had no one he could use as a practice dummy. He wasn't about to hurt his family just to do so, especially when he wanted to maintain a secret identity. His reasoning for this was because it was simply the best thing for him to do. He's read enough comics and manga to realize why this was and if he was going to be a superhero (at least, that's the path Blue Lanterns were destined to go down based on what Saint Walker told him), he was going to play it safe. He had the power to help others and he was going to do so, but he wanted to make sure no one would be in danger as a result of his actions. He would have to test it out while actually on the field, which made him uneasy. What if he failed to save someone from death?

Alongside mastering his healing abilities, he also managed to get flight down, learning how to propel himself through the air. With help from his ring, he was able to use the process of moving himself vertically as a baseline to mastering how to fly horizontally. He was still rusty, but at least he could get around now.

The ring also granted him for the time being the ability to alter his body. When he realized that he had this power, he began getting excited.

"Wait, does that mean I can make myself taller?!" No longer would he be a shorty. He immediately began to attempt to put some height on him, but stopped as he remembered what happened while he was training his flight. What if his ring glitched out during his transformation. He didn't want to accidentally turn himself into an unholy abomination. As such, he decided that he wasn't going to touch this power with a ten foot pole… for now. "Yeah, let's save that for another time."

Finally, the ring gave him the ability to create a costume for himself, an oddly convenient feature, although one he expected seeing as the Green Lanterns of Earth all had this power. Unlike those who were limited to using green, white, and black in their costumes, his costume was limited to using the colors blue, white, and black. Such made sense to the boy though as blue was the signature color of the Blue Lanterns.

When creating his costume, he had images of the Green Lanterns of Earth opened on his computer while having a hologram of the typical Blue Lantern costume displayed. He had to do this in his room, but he made sure to lock the door.

"Everyone here has skin-tight suits, but that doesn't really fit me. I'm more of a hoodie guy." It was true. He hardly went anywhere without the damn thing. Taking out a spare set of his clothes, he laid it down on his bed and began thinking. A few minutes later, he had an epiphany.

As a base, he'd use his regular clothes. His jacket and his pants were to be black he decided. His hoodie was to be blue and he had white gloves form over his hands in addition to having blue boots which reached halfway to his knees. Thanks to his ring, he was able to attach them to his pants and make it look as if they were one item. He also had a face mask modeled after those of the Green Lanterns and made sure to always wear his hoodie over his head. As mentioned before, he was not taking any chances. Thankfully, his ring could control the temperature in an area equivalent to that of his protective aura, even when the aura itself wasn't around, so he never had to worry about being too hot or cold ever again.

"Ok, this looks great." Staring at himself in the mirror, Naegi had to admit that his costume was perfect for him. "It's settled, this is my hero look."

Now, the ring did have the potential to do so much more, such as granting its user invisibility, intangibility, mind control, and full on regeneration (like growing a new arm after the old one was removed), but as Saint Walker explained, those were locked for the time being until Naegi got better at handling his other powers. There was also the fact that he could supposedly see glimpses of the future, but he had no idea how that worked. He asked his ring about it, but all it said was that it happens randomly. As such, he left that power alone. 

To conclude his training, Naegi decided to do some cardio and weightlifting, using his constructs to help create the necessary tools for the latter. Thankfully, as he discovered when playing around with the constructs, he could increase or decrease their weight as needed. With him now being a hero, he thought it was time for him to get into shape. While his ring did increase his speed when flying and his reaction time, his strength wasn't touched. He could increase it with his constructs, but without them, he was simply a normal human. Thankfully, his training did help him shape up. Sure, he wasn't at the level of an athlete as he only started exercising regularly, but he wasn't weak anymore. He no longer wanted to cry after running a mile, which itself was an accomplishment to the boy. Now, some might question why he wasn't learning how to fight, but there was a reason for this. Attending Hope's Peak meant that he would meet some of the most talented fighters of all time. Heck, one of his classmates was going to be the 'Ultimate Martial Artist'. He was planning on learning from them, at least, those who were willing to teach him.

With these two months of training, Naegi felt he was soon ready to go out in the field. However, he still had one obstacle to overcome: his first day at Hope's Peak. Then again, how bad could it be?

0000

“I can't believe this is happening…" Makoto Naegi said as he stared at Hope's Peak. Today was his first day of school and the boy was nervous. He was like a gizelle who had wandered into a pack of hungry lions. His classmates were some of the most talented people alive and he sort of felt like an outlier. Clutching his ring, he remembered that maybe he had more in common with his classmates than he initially thought. After all, all of them were just trying to live their everyday lives. Some were born with incredible talent, some trained to be able to have a talent to call their own, and some had magical rings thrusted upon them and were charged with being a superhero. Yeah, as long as he remembered that his classmates were human, then he could survive being around them.

Taking a deep breath in and exhaling loudly, Naegi decided he had enough of standing outside the building. "Alright, let's do this." Steeling his nerves, the boy began to make his first steps towards the next three years of his life. He had a speech to attend to… that he was thirty minutes late for. He ended up tripping over a rock and missed his train by mere seconds… 

0000

'Wow… that took longer than I thought it would,' Naegi thought to himself as the opening ceremony concluded. What the assembly was about, Naegi couldn't tell other than the fact that the school's guidelines were read and that everyone was given their Electro-IDs. The Electro-IDs were basically small tablets which students used for identification. They also had a mini-map of the school, something Naegi thought was neat. Other than the information about the Electro-IDs, the only parts he paid attention to were when the headmaster mentioned how classes weren't mandatory.

Once the ceremony was over, Naegi flew out (not literally), desperately wanting to be anywhere else. Having been in the auditorium for what felt like three hours really got to the boy.

0000

The first day of classes was not how he expected it would be. While this was Hope's Peak, Naegi was expecting something more tame for his first homeroom class, not what he ended up experiencing.

"Mornin' class," Kizakura slurred before taking a sip of his flask. It didn't take a genius to know he had snuck alcohol inside. "The name's Kizakura and I'll be your homeroom teacher this year."

'How did someone like him get a job at Hope's Peak?' The entire class asked as they watched their teacher sway a bit.

"Anyways, I'm going to skip all the disciplinary bullshit I'm supposed to tell you because it's not important. Just get up there and start introducing yourselves. You'll be spending quite some time with each other, so might as well get friendly."

After taking some time to process what they had just witnessed, everyone began to introduce themselves.

"I am Kiyotaka Ishimaru," the Ultimate Moral Compass said, taking the initiative. According to Naegi's research, he was a boy of extraordinary intellect and discipline. Apparently, he knew a bit of kendo as well, so he was willing, the Moral Compass could help Naegi learn to fight… as strange as that sounds. "I value the rules and studying. I hope we can enjoy a neat and orderly four years together."

"Sup! I'm Aoi Asahina, but my friends just call me Hina," the Ultimate Swimmer stated, going after Ishimaru. Naegi didn't need to look far to find information about her, the girl already being eyed as a future member of the Japanese Olympics team. She might actually have some tips to increase his endurance, so he should try talking to her when he gets the chance. "I like swimming and donuts."

The Ultimate Fanfic Writer was up next. "My name is Hifumi Yamada. 'The man who is the beginning and the end.' You can call me either one, I don't mind." From what Naegi could gather, the boy was a strong writer, being able to sell thousands of copies of his works at a single school festival. He had a lot of knowledge on the world of superheroes, so maybe Naegi could try getting some information from him that could help him activate the rest of his abilities quickly. Sure, Blue Lanterns weren’t known on Earth, but Green Lanterns were. They appeared to be similar, so maybe some of the stuff the Green Lanterns learned about their powers could apply to a Blue Lantern as well.

"I am Sakura Ogami, Ultimate Martial Artist," the martial artist introduced herself. Apparently, this girl never lost a fight in her life. She was one of the people he wanted to aid him in getting stronger for obvious reasons. 

"Sup dudes, I'm Leon Kuwata. While I'm here due to baseball, I'm trying to become the Ultimate Musician." Like Asahina, information about Kuwata wasn't hard to find seeing as he was considered to be one of the best baseball players alive. Naegi did find it somewhat strange that he wanted to change his talent, but there was probably a good reason for his decision, although he should think of getting a different sort of musical title as there already was an ‘Ultimate Musician’ in the school. He was also someone who could give him pointers regarding exercising. 

"Sup! The name's Yasuhiro Hagakure, but you can just call me Hiro," the Ultimate Clairvoyant said. Just by looking at him, Naegi knew he was an interesting character. After all, he was definitely older than the other students. As for his title, supposedly he has a thirty percent chance at correctly predicting the future. Although it initially doesn’t seem like much, being right about something you shouldn’t know about thirty percent of the time was pretty impressive. 

"I-I'm Chihiro Fujisaki, the Ultimate Programmer. I-I hope we can get along." While not really all that interested in the programming scene, Naegi knew how important the shy girl standing in front of him was, her being the leading force behind a technological revolution which was stirring up. Fujisaki was considered by many to be one of the most intelligent people to ever exist.

‘Would she be able to hack into my ring?’ Naegi asked himself, mostly out of curiosity. The ring was a piece of technology, but did Fujisaki know anything about alien hardware? Sure, she was the ‘Ultimate Programmer’, but any knowledge on how to use alien technology was a well kept secret available only to those in high government positions. 

"Greetings. My name is Celestia Ludenberg, but you can just call me Celes. I am the Ultimate Gambler. Pleased to make your acquaintance." According to the online forums, Celestia Ludenberg had caused many casinos to shut down due to her gambling skills. She was considered by many to be a dangerous person, something Naegi picked up on when she did her introduction. She was definitely putting up a facade to hide her true self. But who was the real Celestia Ludenberg? Naegi sort of wanted to find out. When people put up fake personas, they were usually ashamed of their real selves or were hiding something.

"N-not that y-you'll remember anyways, b-but I'm T-Toko Fukawa, the U-ultimate Writing Prodigy." Fukawa was a well known writer of romance novels, some of which Komaru owned. He honestly expected the writer to be a bit less fidgety.

"My name is Byakuya Togami, the Ultimate Affluent Prodigy." The Togami family was one of the most powerful families in the world, owning large amounts of stocks in several of the biggest businesses to exist. It is because of this that they had access to resources no one else did. Whether that extended to the most high kept government secrets Naegi couldn’t say. "Do not treat me like I am one of you. I am on a different level completely."

"Kyoko Kirigiri, Ultimate Detective." Besides himself, the detective was the only person to not have any information about them posted online, so Naegi didn’t know much about her. "For those of you wondering, yes, my father is the headmaster. That's all I'm willing to say on the subject."

"The name's Mondo Oowada, Ultimate Biker Gang Leader. Nice to fucking meet you." Oowada was the leader of the biker gang known as the Crazy Diamonds. Despite the fact the gang avoided having fights where civilians were, Oowada was known for his crazy temper and how he packs quite the punch. He was another option regarding getting someone to help train him to fight, but he wasn’t sure how that’d work out. He could be much nicer than his reputation suggests though, so Naegi was willing to give him a chance. 

"Heey~ I'm Junko Enoshima, Ultimate Fashionista! Charmed aren't we?" Enoshima introduced herself with fake excitement. Like with Celestia, it seemed she was putting on a facade, but of what sort, Naegi didn’t know. If only he had known about the darkness that smile was hiding earlier. "Next to me is my sister."

"I'm Mukuro Ikusaba," the older twin said with an emotionless expression, trying to remain professional. "The Ultimate Soldier."

Naegi could've sworn that the class’s atmosphere dropped upon hearing that a killer was in their class. While a bit afraid himself, Naegi realized that if the headmaster was allowing her to attend school, then she was deemed safe to be around. As she walked to her seat, Naegi gave her a small smile. For some reason, Ikusaba quickly looked away in response, seemingly out of embarrassment. Perhaps she wasn’t used to such gestures from strangers? 

"I'm Sayaka Maizono, the Ultimate Idol. It's nice to meet all of you." Maizono was someone he could easily recognize. They did go to the same middle-school after all, although they never interacted once. He understood why though as nearly everyone tried befriending her. Taking a quick glance at the idol, he noticed that she seemed to be staring at him. Did she perhaps recognize him from their old school? While a possibility, Naegi seriously doubted this was the case. She was the most popular girl in school and he was an average joe. No way would she remember someone like him…

When Maizono took her seat, Naegi realized that he was the only person in his class who has yet to introduce themselves. Standing up, Naegi made his way to the front of the classroom.

Taking a deep breath in, Naegi smiled at his classmates. "Hi everyone, my name's Makoto Naegi, I’m this year’s Ultimate Lucky Student. I was chosen to come here through a lottery. It's nice to meet all of you. Hopefully we can all be friends…"

Naegi knew he could feel some judgemental glances being thrown his way, but he expected this. He was an ordinary joe in a school filled with some of the most talented people alive. Then again, he was perhaps the least ordinary person of his class now that he had the Blue Lantern ring. 

0000

"Well, I see no reason to keep you here any longer," Kizakura admitted, swaying a bit from his unhealthy obsession with alcohol. "There are no classes today and orientation was yesterday. See y'all in class tomorrow… at least, those who decide to show up."

Huh, that was unexpected. Sure, he knew classes were not mandatory, but he thought that the day would have lasted longer.

"Wait sensei!" Ishimaru called out, having several questions he wanted to ask. Sadly, the drunk teacher ignored him, opting to leave the classroom instead of dealing with his students. A loud ‘thud’ later and Kizakura passed out in the middle of the hallway. Unknown to the boy, this is actually quite common. 

Watching this, Naegi rubbed his head. Hope's Peak was nothing like he expected. Non-mandatory classes and drunk teachers were not what one would normally find in an 'elite' school. He was still going to attend classes though. Unlike nearly everyone else in this school, he couldn’t rely on his talent to get far in life, especially with luck like his, so a chance at being educated by some of the most talented people alive wasn’t something he was going to pass up. 

Glancing at his classmates, Naegi noticed some of them began to leave. Celestia was the first to go, giving everyone a polite curtsy before ditching. Togami took a glance at everyone before deciding to go as well. Fukawa scurried out of the classroom afterwards, no doubt eager to get away from everyone. The twins were the next to go, neither one acknowledging their classmates. Finally, Kirigiri abruptly stood up and walked out. Everyone else however decided to stay and socialize. 

'Wow, they didn't waste any time,’ Naegi thought to himself, debating on if he should leave as well. The idea of meeting his new classmates stopped him in his tracks though. It would be best to develop some sort of relationship before asking them to train him after all. Before he could stand up and speak to his classmates, he felt the presence of someone approaching him.

"Hi Naegi, it's nice to see you again."

Blinking, he looked up from his desk and was met with the sight of Maizono looking down at him, a small smile plastered on her face. Deciding that it would be rude to ignore her, Naegi shot her a soft smile. "Hey Maizono, nice to meet you."

Hearing this, Maizono's smile turned into a frown. "Meet me? Don't you remember our time in middle school together?"

"You remember me?" Naegi asked, genuinely shocked that Japan's most famous idol recognized a nobody like him. "How? We never talked and I didn't do anything all that interesting…"

"That's not true. I was always hearing about all the kind things you did for everyone at our old school. I've been dying to find an excuse to talk to you, but unfortunately I was always busy with my fans."

Naegi couldn't help but blush. Who knew he had the ability to catch the attention of an idol? Honestly, the feats she was describing weren't special. All he did was help a crane that got stuck in the school's pool and volunteered for some fundraising events.

"You'd be surprised how many people were inspired by your actions," Maizono said, startling Naegi. Did she just read his mind? 

"D-did I say all that out loud?"

"Nope. I'm psychic." Glancing at the boy's startled expression, Maizono let loose a small giggle. "Just kidding, I just have really good intuition."

'Too good if you ask me,' Naegi thought to himself. If her intuition was as powerful as she claimed, then he needed to keep his guard up around her at all times. He didn’t want her to find out about the ring. "Makes sense. I'm guessing you have to have a sharp mind to be in the entertainment business."

"Yep." Despite her trying to hide it, Naegi managed to pick up a few traces of fear and sadness in her eyes. Why this was, he had no idea. All he knew was that he needed to change the subject. 

“Damn Naegi, you grew up with Maizono?” Kuwata asked, walking towards them and thankfully providing a much needed shift in discussion. Naegi was sort of confused as to why, but hey, it gave the boy a chance to talk to him. Maizono however knew exactly what was going on, but she continued to smile, not giving anything away. “I see why they call you the ‘Ultimate Lucky Student.’” He stuck a hand out to the Lucky Student. “Leon Kuwata, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Naegi said with a smile, glad to be making a new friend. 

Kuwata soon turned his attention towards Maizono and gave her a swave grin. Well, he thought he was being cool, but in reality he looked a bit goofy. “Maizono.”

“Kuwata,” the idol greeted him with her signature smile. Naegi suddenly felt the atmosphere around him become tense. Unknown to him, Kuwata was hoping to charm Maizono while the idol in return had caught on to what he was doing and wanted no part in this. She’s had her fair share of people try hitting on her, so she was able to smell his intentions from a mile away.

“You’re just the person I was hoping to see. You probably heard me before, but I was hoping to change my talent to the ‘Ultimate Musician’”.

“Uh Kuwata, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there’s already an ‘Ultimate Musician’ in the year above us,” Naegi told him.

Kuwata gave him a disappointed glance. “Really? Crap...”

“That’s not to say that you can’t go for another musically related talent,” Naegi added, not wanting to crush the boy’s dream. “I mean, music has many genres, right?”

“Right!” Just like that, Kuwata went from disappointed to motivated. “The ‘Ultimate Musician’ title may be taken, but I can still become the ‘Ultimate Punk Star’! Thanks Naegi!”

“Uh, you’re welcome?” It wasn’t like he did anything. Kuwata would’ve found out about the ‘Ultimate Musician’ without him.

Kuwata shifted his focus back to Maizono. “I was wondering if you could hook me up with a manager or something! I could give you a private concert in my dorm once I finish unpacking if you’d like and you’ll see how much of a badass I am at music!”

“Sorry, I have to unpack my dorm as well,” Maizono told him, giving out a fake excuse.

Kuwata was a bit more stubborn than she thought however. “Eh, no biggie. I can play for you tomorrow if you’d like.”

“Maybe…”

Naegi watched this conversation go down and he had an important question. “Wait, hold on, you have dorms?”

“Yeah,” Maizono said, glad for an excuse to remove herself from Kuwata’s advances. “Our acceptance letters came with applications for a dorm. Hope’s Peak has a limited amount of them and some are used by our upperclassmen. The ones they don’t use are free for us freshmen to use.”

“I never got the forum…” Naegi frowned. Unknown to him, the envelope his letter came in ended up not being sealed well, so the forum fell out as it was being mailed. Don’t get him wrong, he loved his family, but he wanted to try out dorming. Then again, dorming would have been a bad idea. Hope’s Peak had some important people living in their campus, so the place would be highly monitored. There was no way he’d be able to sneak out to do some hero work without being noticed, especially since he couldn’t become invisible yet.

Maizono gave him a sympathetic frown. “Really? That sucks. Well, you’re more than free to hang out in mine if you’d like. I do want to make up for lost time after all.”

Despite it being an innocent offer, Naegi couldn’t help but blush at the idea of a girl inviting him to her room, said girl being the ‘Ultimate Idol’ no less.

“Same here,” Kuwata said, giving the boy a friendly pat on the back.

Naegi smiled at the kindness the two were showing him. “Thanks guys.”

‘This kid’s got some moves,’ Kuwata thought to himself as he saw how easy it was for the boy to interact with the idol, not knowing that Naegi was just being friendly. ‘I gotta know how he does it...'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note 2: As you can see, I've set up the road for several interactions in this fic. While Maizono and Kuwata will be the two who hang out with him the most (not counting his love interest once that's determined), I do plan on having him interact with his classmates, class 77, the Children of Hope, and the V3 gang in the future. In addition, some characters of the Green Lantern mythos will be making an appearance. In fact, a certain Red Lantern will be having a big role to play in this story...

**Author's Note:**

> Author's note 2: In case some of you were wondering, all lantern rings grant the user knowledge on how to use the basic functions of the ring, which certainly makes some things easier regarding the story. At the moment, Naegi only has the basic powers of a rookie Green Lantern. He'll unlock all the Blue lantern exclusives later on in the fic. After all, no one likes an overpowered character. Also, let's just say that Naegi may have attracted the attention of the other lanterns, especially the evil ones...
> 
> On an unrelated note, if you read my fic 'Hajime Hinate Ultimate Hero,' you'll notice that I had Hinata, Koizumi, and Souda as the main friend trio in the fic with everyone else coming in later. In this fic, Naegi will be forming a similar friendship with Kuwata and Maizono (aka: the two most normal members of his class). Of course, they won't be the only ones playing a role in the story. Other characters, such as Hinata and Kirigiri will be playing a significant role as well...
> 
> Oh, and the DC Universe did exist in the past in this fic...


End file.
